7.3 Staff Investigators Within the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center are investigators who perform key roles in the activities of the Center, but are not specifically represented in our senior leader or programmatic line-up. Our Staff Investigators make sure that we, as a Center, are at the cutting edge of specific research areas that we believe will be important growth areas and opportunities in the future. Staff Investigators attend our quarterly off-site retreats, and report to the other members ofthe Center's leadership on new developments in these areas. In this application, we propose five of these individuals for funding: Celia Kaplan, Ph.D., Coordinator, Inreach Dr. Kaplan's research is in the field of health disparities and cancer prevention and control, as well as in conducting epidemiologic, health services, and communication research, with an emphasis on cancer care disparities. Her work has focused on assessing individual, community, and system factors associated with health access, and in factors affecting participation in clinical trials among patients, physicians, and community organizations. This expertise has led to the work she initiated, and will pursue as Staff Investigator. Dr. Kaplan partnered with Dr. Eric Small, Deputy Director and Associate Director of Clinical Sciences and of the Investigational Trials Resource (ITR), to evaluate the patterns of accrual to clinical trials at the Center. Overall accrual of minority and underserved populations (relative to the distribution of new cases seen at the Center, and relative to several catchment areas), and the relative contributions of outreach and inreach were evaluated. The results from this work led to the decision to specifically build an inreach effort in the Center. Dr. Kaplan will direct this initiative as part of her role as a Staff Investigator. Dr. Kaplan has established a center-wide initiative entitled,